460 A NATIONAL PLAN FOR AMERICAN FORESTRY 



as moderate. The dry summers make tinder of dense vegetative 

 growth, and although energetic efforts are made to protect these lands 

 from fire extensive fires still occur. Fire-suppression efforts must be 

 further strengthened if timber and watershed values are to be ade- 

 quately safeguarded. Under proper regulation the timber, grazing, 

 wild-life, and recreational values of these lands are used advantageously 

 without impairing watershed values. 



Private holdings compose more than half the forested area of the 

 drainages. Of this private land, approximately 8,576,000 acres are 

 classed as of major watershed-protective influence, 4,781,000 acres as 

 of moderate influence, and 868,000 acres as of slight influence. The 

 usual practice is to clear cut the timber and burn the slash. This 

 practice is ordinarily followed by satisfactory vegetation of the area. 

 Fire protection is far from adequate on a large part of these private 

 lands, especially on the cut-over timberlands. Reburns are frequent. 

 Valuable timber reproduction has been replaced by brush, a change 

 that materially increases the fire hazard. Cutting of private timber 

 is often followed by tax delinquency and abandonment, which inten- 

 sify protection difficulties. The net result of such conditions is a 

 poorer watershed protective cover. 



The drainages west of the Cascade Divide include approximately 

 1,897,000 acres of public domain and revested Oregon and California 

 Railroad grant lands. The watershed-protective influence of theselands 

 is classified as follows: approximately 1,200,000 acres, major; 482,000 

 acres, moderate; and 215,000 acres, slight. Timber is sold from the 

 revested lands classified as timberland, but no provision is made for 

 their permanent forest productivity. These lands are given some fire 

 protection. No provision has been made, however, for protecting 

 their timber from insects or disease, and bark beetles have killed 

 immense quantities of the ponderosa pine. The net result of the 

 policy governing the protection and use of these lands is a tendency 

 toward less effective protection of watershed values. 



Much true timberland in the Oregon and California grant lands 

 has been classed by statute as agricultural land, and some of this, 

 although unsuited to agricultural crop production, as a result of this 

 classification has passed to private ownership, usually to be aban- 

 doned when the timber has been cut. 



In a region of such steep slopes, high precipitation, and deep SQOWS 

 as that west of the Cascades, a high, dense forest cover, such as that 

 formed by the existing coniferous stands, is essential to retard run-off, 

 hold the soil in place, and prevent avalanches. The high timber 

 values per acre of the virgin forest have resulted in large private hold- 

 ings. Private lands are rapidly being cut over, and after cutting are 

 largely devastated by fire. There is considerable doubt, therefore, 

 whether the watershed requirements of these drainages as a whole 

 will be adequately safeguarded if conditions continue as they are or 

 become worse, as they can easily do. Public agencies should acquire 

 about 5,000,000 acres of the private land on steep slopes. Approxi- 

 mately 100,000 acres of devastated forest lands should be replanted. 

 Research is needed to determine how the forest cover of the Pacific 

 Cascade slope can be made most effective in watershed protection and 

 what use of the forest can be combined with maintenance of satisfac- 

 tory watershed conditions. 



